


Conquering Lions

by redluna



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Older!Cullen, Younger!Dorian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23285068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redluna/pseuds/redluna
Summary: Cullen never planned on winding up in Tevinter rather than Kirkwall. Even less so to become the glorified babysitter of an endearingly frustrating young lord.
Relationships: Dorian Pavus/Cullen Rutherford
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61





	Conquering Lions

**Author's Note:**

> Snippet from an alternate world where [Cullen is Dorian's bodyguard](https://redxluna.tumblr.com/post/611409530723729408/cullrian-if-i-was-just-a-few-years-older-id).
> 
> Despite the age difference, everyone is of the age of consent here—Dorian is nineteen to Cullen's thirty. Written for a prompt that came from a list of different kisses:  
> -Hiding/hoping not to be caught kiss  
> -Moving Around While Kissing, Stumbling Over Things, Pushing Each Other Back Against The Wall/Onto The Bed

Cullen wasn’t unfamiliar with bad decisions. He had been determined to change that once; had clung to it even after learning the ship he had boarded had a very different idea about their heading.

Most days since, however, Cullen was just grateful for the days when it felt as though he had managed to keep his head above the corruption that seemed to beat in Tevinter like a second heart.

Perhaps that had been why he had found it so easy to accept the offer of Lord Halward Pavus to “recruit” him from the Northern templars. It should have stung, of course, that all he was found capable of was playing caretaker to a noble. But it would have been a purpose—a chance to shape a mind still learning rather than bearing the wary gazes of those in the Northern Circle.

As it turned out, however, very little could have managed to prepare him for Dorian.

From the start, the boy had been exactly what Cullen had expected—entitled and elaborately primped. It had been something of an amusement to so easily deflect the charms of someone so clearly used to receiving whatever—or  _ who _ ever—they wanted with little more than a smile and a pretty word or two.

If that had been all, it would have been enough.

Except Dorian was  _ clever _ , for all his glibness, already outmatching the tutors his father continually tried to throw his way. The society that he so regularly complained of missing out from demanded aloofness, yet Cullen had caught him sneaking in to help his mother to bed after a particularly bad night of drinking or measuring out the coins needed to help a slave get her daughter the proper treatment.

It broke through the expectations that the Chantry back home drilled into one’s head, leaving Cullen a little ashamed to have clung to them for so long. To show pride in such actions was easier, even if there were still certain freedoms he didn’t have the ability to hand out. He could engage Dorian in debates of magical theory, for all it made his head spin, or sit with the boy rather than stand apart.

The unabashed joy that Dorian took in the latter should have been the warning sign. But, with most experiences in Cullen’s life, it took being smacked upside the head with it for him to understand what was happening.

It had been a simple thing to clasp Dorian on the shoulder when he broke through the latest otherwise impossible theory. Pulling the boy in close might have been too much, though. Certainly when it left him with a clear view of the open delight in Dorian’s face and the fondness that swelled up in his chest to meet it.

Returning to the way things had been before had been hard but  _ necessary _ . A train of thought that he had to return himself to again and again as he watched Dorian flit about the gathering of people.

The party held at the Pavus estate was meant to be a reward, of sorts, for the heir—a way of showing what could be gained if he would only tow the line. There shouldn’t have been any need for someone of such non-existent rank to be there, but Halward had fixed him with a hard look when he had tried to demure.

From how Dorian’s glass never seemed to run dry, let alone all the people he seemed content to let much,  _ much _ too close, perhaps Cullen had been wrong to assume himself unneeded.

It was somewhere in between finishing a glass of much too cloying wine and dodging the questions of a woman much the same, however, that Dorian disappeared. There was a bite to the woman’s startled tittering as he broke away, but Cullen could barely catch the actual words, let alone bring himself to care.

At least no one had forgotten the rumors of the Southern outsider that had stalked through the halls of the various Tevinter Circles. All it took was a sharp clearing of the throat, along with a bit of drawing up his presence, to have Dorian’s “friends” giggles ending abruptly.

“I told him it was a bad idea.” Felix seemed grateful to be led away from the gaggle of others. They all seemed too loud for the boy, but then, he managed to navigate through Dorian’s outbursts with more care than anyone else. “Promise to go easy on him?”

“I’ll try,” was all Cullen could offer.

It was made easier, at least, by the discovery that Dorian hadn’t made anywhere near as much progress on climbing the terrace as he had sworn he would. Not that that, or the wine still clear on his breath, were enough to keep him flailing more than should be permitted when Cullen plucked him free.

“What’s the matter?” Cullen couldn’t be sure if the teasing did anything to mask the strained notes of concern in his voice. “I thought you were enjoying your company.”

“Of course you notice  _ now _ .” Dorian tore himself free of the hold at last, quick to slap away the hand that reached for him in response. It didn’t hurt, Cullen had to remind himself, no more than the pinched expression on the boy’s face. “Can’t you let me have this at least?”

“No.” Cullen grit his teeth for a moment against the rising anger he could see in Dorian’s face. “Please, my lord, think this through. Is it worth losing every other privilege you’ve gained so far?”

“Privilege?” Dorian scoffed. “You think that’s what it is to be locked up here? To be monitored every second of the—”

Cullen caught one of the hands Dorian was gesturing with, squeezing down until the words ran dry at last. “You are safe,” he said, voice gone low. “You aren’t… No one can punish you for indulging at a party. But to use it to stage an escape?”

He was prepared to be snapped at, even, perhaps, to be told that it was far from his place to bother with such things. Except then the hand in his hold began to shake and it was with a soft noise of alarm that he realized there were tears in Dorian’s eyes.

“Why do you have to…” Dorian inhaled deeply, squeezing his eyes shut until the tears gathered in little glimmers in the torchlight at the corners of his eyes. “My father can’t be paying you well enough for it. He can’t even bring himself to.”

That, after all this time, was what drew Cullen up sharp in offense. “This isn’t about what I’m  _ paid _ ,” he hissed. “For Maker’s sake, I care about you, and if you expect me to—”

It wasn’t a pretty kiss, not with how their teeth clacked together in the rush Dorian made to get there, but it was somehow sweet even still. More so when Cullen managed to gentle it, releasing Dorian’s hand to cup the back of his head. He had to grip hard a moment later when the boy tried to dive right back in.

“Dorian, this can’t be…” He eased out a sigh at Dorian’s frustrated huff. “You deserve better, don’t you know that?”

“What I know,” Dorian replied, “is that I don’t give a damn what people  _ think _ I should be doing.”

There had been plenty of stories peppered throughout Cullen’s arrival to the Pavus household. Many of which included what behavior he would have to watch for in the young lord given the scandalous situations the boy seemed to be determined to find himself in. Enough so that Cullen shouldn’t have been surprised by how good of a kisser Dorian managed to be.

It did make him kiss back with a bit more force than he originally intended, however. But then it was a bit hard to find fault in such things when it had Dorian mewling into his mouth, clinging to his shirt for balance as he was backed up against the wall.

The leg that tangled somewhere in his own in its efforts to get up around his waist had him chuckling, however. “I’m not about to take you apart here, my lord.” He shifted his head to dodge another kiss, soothing the grumbling Dorian offered with a softer one to his cheek. “This isn’t another of your quick pleasures. If you want me—truly, like this—then you have to give me the chance to do this right.”

Dorian muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Not fair,” although it hitched somewhere in the middle as Cullen hoisted him upwards with an arm around his waist.

“Come now, my lord,” he grinned, “as if you’ve ever liked me in any other way.”

**Author's Note:**

> Did I spend a good chunk of remoting into work from home doing this today? Yes, yes, I did. (Don't tell my bosses.)


End file.
